Various materials in the absorbent product industry, such as those used to form diapers, wipes, tissue, etc., are often stored in a rolled form on a pallet. The rolled materials are held in place on the pallet using a variety of techniques, such as boxing, banding, or blister packaging. However, conventional palletizing approaches result in a variety of problems. For example, when palletized materials are stacked one upon the next, there is a tendency for the stack to lean. Further, the runners of an upwardly-disposed pallet sometimes indent or distort the packaging of the materials. Nails utilized with wooden pallets may also damage the materials during handling.
In response to these and other problems, another form of palletizing, sometimes referred to as “slipsheet” palletizing”, was developed. For instance, one example of such a slipsheet palletizing technique is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,059,514 to Sanchez. With the “slipsheet” approach, materials are stacked on each other, but have a thin slipsheet positioned between adjacently stacked materials. A lifting device may be employed (herein referred to as a “upender”) to manipulate the stacked materials. Despite its benefits, however, the “slipsheet palletizing” technique still possesses various problems, particularly for soft and flexible materials. For instance, when stacking multiple materials, the increased weight causes the entire stack to lean slightly. Even if the stack does not fall, the leaning imparts increased pressure to the outer edges of the materials. When the material is relatively soft and flexible, this increased pressure can cause the outer edges to be indented and deformed, which is obviously undesired. In many instances, these deformed materials must actually be discarded.
As such, a need currently exists for a system and method for more effectively stacking materials, particularly relatively soft and flexible absorbent materials.